The Ghost and the Stolen Tears

Cleo Coyle

Oct 2022 · Haunted Bookshop Mystery Book 8 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

With the help of her gumshoe ghost, bookshop owner Penelope Thornton-McClure sets out to clear an innocent woman of a shocking crime in this all-new entry in the “utterly charming” (Mystery Scene) Haunted Bookshop Mysteries from New York Times bestselling author Cleo Coyle.

Norma is a modern-day nomad. Living out of her van and teardrop trailer, she revels in self-reliance, solitude, and reading in the glorious peace of nature. Jovial, wise, and scrupulously honest, she’s become an uplifting presence in the little town of Quindicott, Rhode Island, where bookseller Pen is thankful to have her part-time help. But it’s Norma’s other job, working as a housekeeper at the Finch Inn, that gets her into terrible trouble. Norma is accused of stealing jewels from a guest’s room: the legendary Valentino Teardrops, an antique necklace and earring set, inherited by a young socialite. Pen doesn’t believe Norma is guilty of the crime—though the evidence is distressingly strong. And when the spirited Norma vanishes before her arrest, Pen turns to another spirit…

Jack Shepard, PI, may have been gunned down decades ago, but his memory hasn’t been ghosted. Back in the 1940s, those same Valentino Teardrops starred in a bizarre case of betrayal and murder. From the look of things, history is about to repeat. Now Jack is back on the job, and Pen is eternally grateful.

Ratings and reviews

"But then life was like that, wasn't it?Driven by phantoms we didn't always understand." Bookstore owner in a small Rhode Island village, Penelope Thornton-McClure and her son Spencer came to help Aunt Sadie a while ago, and to her credit, the bookstore is now thriving. In this, the 8th book in the series, Pen and her ghost PI Jack Shepherd trace a convoluted history of a set of jewels called Valentino's Tears; something Jack knows much about as he has been involved with the set before. But when Norma "the nomad" is accused to stealing the set from their current owner and then....disappears... with a weird insurance claims adjuster who is hot on her tail certain she is the culprit, Pen and Jack move as quickly as they can to save their friend and give Quindicott residents reason to feel peaceful again. I have been a fan of Cleo Coyle/Alice Kimberly for years! When this particular series began, as I am from RI I was all over it. I love the premise and look forward to my TBR of the previous book in the series as I await the March release of book 9. Highly Recommended 5/5 [Disclaimer:I recieved this book as a gift from the author. In no way did it effect my review which I did voluntarily]

About the author

CLEO COYLE is a pseudonym for Alice Alfonsi, writing in collaboration with her husband, Marc Cerasini. Both are New York Times bestselling authors of The Coffeehouse Mysteries, now celebrating over ten years in print. Alice and Marc are also bestselling media tie-in writers who have penned properties for Lucasfilm, NBC, Fox, Disney, Imagine, and MGM. They live and work in New York City, where they write independently and together, including the nationally bestselling Haunted Bookshop Mysteries.